It was a no-brainer
to go with
single-payer in the
first place (with
the public option as
a second-place
alternative). The
neocons were whipped
up into such a
frenzy about having
a black president
(along with the
insult of being a
Democrat) that they
just had to
stonewall his agenda
at any cost, even
the cost of screwing
the American public,
their so-called
constituency. We are
SO far behind the
rest of the
industrialized
world, it's
pathetic. But the
neocons keep
screaming their
buzzwords of
COMMUNIST and
SOCIALIST like it's
the McCarthy
hearings all over
again. Sure, we
should go back to
the drawing board
and do it right,
single payer.
Cleaner, simpler and
the most cost
effective -- and
universal -- option
available. Let's
pull our heads out
and put the wingnuts
in the corner where
they belong. Where
bad boys belong..

alice carroll

07/17/14

Shopping for
healthcare like
buying a car?
Laughable at best! I
can just imagine
doctors offices
listing prices for
care like a menu in
a restaurant. Or
hospitals! Sure,
just let the
free-market dictate
your care. What a
nightmare that would
be. The business
world is fraught
with illegal
activity,
price-fixing,
cheating, cutting
corners on quality,
that to hold that up
as an example of how
costs could be
contained is just
plain scary.
It was American
business that begged
the government to do
something to reign
in health care costs
as they could not
compete globally vs.
countries that
subsidize
healthcare. The ACA
is what we got
because Republicans
could not stomach
any purely
government-run
system. So private
insurance companies
that must make a
profit, administer
the program making
care more expensive.
US healthcare is
inefficient,
overwrought with
tests and as studies
have found
coordination of care
is lacking compared
with European
counterparts.
All this infighting
does not help our
country or the
people that rely on
our healthcare
system. At least the
ACA has helped
millions get care
that they could not
get previously.
Every US citizen
needs to have access
to quality,
affordable health
care. We need to
start acting like a
cohesive country
that cares about its
citizens or I fear
we won't have a
country much longer..

Rene' Funkhouser RN, MSN, Family Nurse Practitioner

07/17/14

Single payer means NO CHOICES in our freedom to access the health care that we have come to rely on in this country. The Veteran's Affairs story which filled the news for a short time... will be the reality for all Americans if we do not prevail in this most important matter..

AvidReader

07/17/14

DSM VI needs to
establish a category
of groupthink
personality
disorders; the
Republican party
being the primary
and most populous
current case
example..

DODdoc

07/17/14

The rest of the industrialized world has "grown up"
With rationing of healthcare. This is something Amercians won't accept.
Pain, swelling, and instability in your knee? Sorry you can exercise for a while but there might be an opening for
an MRI in the next state about 6 months from now.
That is how costs are kept down. Rationing. Someone else decides what is important. We all get some, but no
one gets great...
So why isn't housing a right that should be provided to all? Transportation? Food?
Following that, isn't it really the government's responsibility to provide me a job too?.

Jim

07/18/14

I offer Finland for
an example. Check it
out. The best
standard of living.
The best medical
care. The best
educational system.
And the kicker: the
happiest nation on
earth. The big
problem? It needs
staying out of
reckless wars and
interventions in
other countries. It
means dismantling
and disabling the
military-industrial
complex. And that
would be just
horrific, wouldn't
it? Let's harken
back to the
prescient words of
President (and
General) Dwight D.
Eisenhower:
&quot; Every gun that is
made, every warship
launched, every
rocket fired
signifies, in the
final sense, a theft
from those who
hunger and are not
fed, those who are
cold and are not
clothed.
This world in arms
is not spending
money alone.
It is spending the
sweat of its
laborers, the genius
of its scientists,
the hopes of its
children.
The cost of one
modern heavy bomber
is this: a modern
brick school in more
than 30 cities.
It is two electric
power plants, each
serving a town of
60,000 population.
It is two fine,
fully equipped
hospitals.
It is some fifty
miles of concrete
pavement.
We pay for a single
fighter plane with a
half million bushels
of wheat.
We pay for a single
destroyer with new
homes that could
have housed more
than 8,000 people.
This is, I repeat,
the best way of life
to be found on the
road the world has
been taking.
This is not a way of
life at all, in any
true sense. Under
the cloud of
threatening war, it
is humanity hanging
from a cross of
iron. These plain
and cruel truths
define the peril and
point the hope that
come with this
spring of 1953.&quot;
No, I'm not rambling
here. We need to
assess our
priorities. THAT is
what is long
overdue! We can have
good healthcare for
all. Oh yes, we can..

Lynn Huidekoper, RN

07/19/14

We already have a very successful Single Payer program called
Medicare. HR 676, John Conyer's Expanded and Improved Medicare for
All (Single Payer bill), would just expand Medicare to cover
everyone. Medicare has a 3-5% overhead (unlike insurance which takes
20% out for profit under the ACA)so more dollars actually go to
deliver health care which is what we all want.
No other country makes profit off the backs of sick people. The US
ranks 37th in the world for access and quality of care. That's why
Colin Powell and a large percentage of doctors want Single Payer.
Nancy Snyderman announced this on MSNBC months ago. The JAMA came
out several years ago that 59% MD's want SP and the number is
increasing. They are tired of insurance companies meddling in their
ability to deliver quality care. Big business benefits from SP as
the car manufacturers in Canada learned. While the ACA does expand
the number of some groups of folks, like the poor under the Medicaid
expansion, 20-30 million Americans don't qualify. Republican
Governors are mean-spirited when they refused to take Federal
dollars for 3 years to cover the poor in their states resulting in
these folks having to go to the ER which is more
expensive to the taxpayers and it's inhumane. In North Carolina that
means half a million in their state!! The average wait in an ER if
you don't have anyting urgent can br 4-10hours. Is taht humane esp.
if someone is ill? What kind of nation are we?
As MLK said so eloquently, &quot;Of all forms of inequality,
injustice in health care is the most shocking and the most
inhumane.&quot;
I find it shameful that Sanjay Gupta does not support Single Payer.
Didn't he take the Hippocratic oath to do no harm? Preventing
Americans from getting preventive care is doing harm to millions.
Single Payer is NOT socialism. It's a public insurance program that
pays private hospitals and doctors. For all the fear of
&quot;socialized
medicine&quot; these same ignorant Americans forget that the VA is a
SOCIALIZED system!!! Last year Charles Krauthammer commmented on Fox
News that since the ACA is so complicated and expensive why not go
to Single Payer which every other industrialized nation has. It's a
no-brainer. Ask any senior who has Medicare what a fabulous program
it is..

Lynn Huidekoper, RN

07/20/14

Rene' Funkhouser RN, MSN, Family Nurse Practitioner,
Your knowledge about Single Payer is incorrect. Under Single Payer
you have MORE choice of health care providers. The current insurance
system often has preferred providers, i.e., limited choice in
doctors and other health care providers. In fact, some folks under
the ACA are facing having to find another doctor as the plan they
qualify for under their state's exchange, may have either dropped
that MD or the MD dropped out of that insurance plan. That has
happened in Calif. where I live.
Medicare is a successful SP program. You should know that as an NP.
In fact, mid-level practitioners like yourself will benefit by
Single Payer and the ACA. You will have more pts.who will qualify
for preventive care. You can't compare the VA and Medicare/Single
Payer. They are 2 completely different systems. The VA is a
socialized system. Single Payer is not.
Recently, I attended a town hall called by 2 Congresswomen from the
SF Bay Area and held at the Palo Alto VA Hospital(considered one of
the best in the US). The reason the VA is having trouble is that
Congress did not anticipate, as they should have, how many military
were going to be injured in our 2 wars. Over 80,000 sustained major
injuries. Therefore, they did not allocate the funding to cover the
care of all these returning vets.
Studies have been done by health care economists on the national and
several states' SP bills,on how much SP would save the country. More
people would live and none go bankrupt. I suggest that you see "The
Healthcare Movie" which compares the US and Canadian systems. It is
being shown all over the US to educate people with the facts and not
rumors. I trained as a PA at the Stanford PA program 1972-1975 and
got one of the highest grades on the National PA Exam written by the
National Board of Medical Examiners who write the MD exams. I have
been working on Single Payer legislation for over 10 years in Calif.
We would have had it years ago but we had an incompetent,
irresponsible, selfish governor called Arnie who refused twice to
sign our bill. Vermont had passed one and NY and PA have bills. Many
states have SP legislation being crafted. I hope you will research
all of this so you can share the correct info with others..

Lynn Huidekoper, RN

07/20/14

DODdoc,
Another uneducated American. You need to see The Healthcare Movie
which compares the Canadian and US systems.It features statistics
that compare the 2 countries as well as interviews of both citizens.
How many go bankrupt in the US due to ridiculous health care bills
=1 million. Canada=0 How many people die in America due to lack of
access to preventive healthcare: US=45,000(Institute of Medicine))
How many in Canada=0.
In Canada, whose population about 35 million people(slightly less
than Calif.), there are far fewer MRI's, MD's hospitals,
specialists,etc.in every province In the US in some areas there's an
MRI and MD on every street corner. Canadians fear travelling to the
US, becoming ill and being slapped wtih a huge bill. There's a lot
of info on the Internet:
"Lack of health insurance is associated with as many as 44,789
deaths per year in the United States". Source: Harvard Medical
School Study, American Journal of Public Health, December 2009.

This survey is a poll of those who choose to participate and are, therefore, not valid statistical samples, but rather a snapshot of what your colleagues are thinking.

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